WWE Region, Providence Subregion, Second Round: (5) CM Punk vs. (12) Brock Lesnar

[Dragon Chief]

Actually, yes that's on him. He's obviously not the only reason the ratings dropped so steeply, but he was who the company was built around as that happened. And sure, you can say Austin and Rock left but when Austin left for injury in 99-2000, the people left behind retained most, if not more of an audience. Ditto when Hogan took a break in 1990 and Warrior held the fort.

Lesnar saw the biggest drop off in fans when he was given the ball that anyone had seen since Ric Flair became WWF champion. But that's another comment for another day.

First and foremost, I don't understand how Brock Lesnar is to blame for the low ratings when he was exclusively wrestling on SmackDown, not even the WWEs flagship show. If anyone is to be blamed for the low ratings it should be Triple H and Goldberg, who were the ones headlining RAW that year for the most part.

Secondly, who is to say CM Punk would have done any better? He was never given the full "poster boy" push and even when he had the WWE title for 400 plus days, he didn't set any ratings records.

At the end of the day Brock Lesnar was pushed as a dominant wrestler who rarely lost, whereas CM Punk was pushed as a wrestler best known for his promos not his win/loss record. CM Punk lost clean to The Rock twice and once to Triple H while in his prime. Brock Lesnar on the other hand beat both Triple H and The Rock clean on his first try.